Elizabeth Chapin is not afraid of bright hues. "I love candy colors, both in my work and in my house," says the portrait artist, who shares a Victorian home in Austin, Texas, with her husband, Nathaniel, and children Alabel, six, and Henry, four. That passion for bold palettes is evident in the century-old dwelling's interior.

Chapin enlivened the rooms with a rainbow of monochromatic wall colors that balance her collection of idiosyncratic accessories and vividly patterned vintage furniture, such as the gently gently curved, Neoclassical sofa that she reupholstered in a wild leopard print. "If I find something I love and am not sure what to do with it at first, I hang onto it because it always ends up working out," she says.

Her historic home, located near town lake, was no different. She happened upon the run-down, 3,800-square-foot structure in 1999; went it went on the market a few months later, she and her husband snapped it up. Their intention was to gradually return the house, which had been divided into four separate units during the depression, to its single-family roots. The renovation has been a long process, and Chapin admits that the constant interior reconfigurations are part of the reason she opted for the vibrant hues inside. "We know they're only temporary and the kids love them," she says. "It keeps us from taking all the changes too seriously."